With the publication of his first novel, Antonina or the Fall of Rome (1850), Collins found his calling. Unsure of what he wanted to do in life, Collins seriously considered becoming an artist and in 1849 he exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition titled The Smuggler’s Retreat. After the death of his father in February 1847, he published his first book, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., RA in 1848. After a few years in school and a short period of time as an apprentice for some tea merchants, he studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, “where he gained the legal knowledge that was to give him much material for his writing” (i). Collins’ father was a well-known painter and the family changed houses and traveled overseas often during his childhood.
Wilkie Collins was born in London to William John Thomas and Harriet Collins January 8, 1824.
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